India's environment ministry has received a notification from the NCST asking it to temporarily ban the displacement of tribals from forest areas and critical tiger reserves.

New Delhi: India's environment ministry has received a notification from the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) asking it to temporarily ban the displacement of tribals from forest areas and critical tiger reserves.

Aimed at curbing the displacement of tribals from essential wildlife areas and tiger reserves, the NCST's move follows a circular issued by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in March 2017.

Tribal communities residing in said forests do not have any rights on their land which falls under the ambit of critical tiger reserves, read the circular.

Reports have said that the circular has been intercepted by the NCST as an infringement of tribals' rights granted to them under the Forest Rights Act.

NCST secretary Raghav Chandra, in a letter, addressed to the secretary of environment CK Mishra, said that the circular cannot override the Act which acts as a safeguard for several tribal communities.

Underlining the importance of the Forest Rights Act, the letter also urged the concerned authorities to ensure that any displacement of tribals is kept in abeyance and the rehabilitation policy be revisited before any displacement.

In addition, the NCST has also urged the environment ministry to increase the compensation issued to displaced tribals from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. Compensation norms also dictate that any displaced tribal family should be given 4 hectares of land and that no tribal should be evicted from the forest area in question until the alternate land is provided considering that the entire rehabilitation process is completed within a period of three years.

A three-member committee of the NCST has been formed to tackle the issue with the additional chief secretary (forest and environment department) of Odisha at the helm. The committee's other members will include Madhya Pradesh government’s Tribal Area Development Department director and National Tiger Conservation Authority DIG Nishant Verma as its members.